The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-07-29

FIGHTING FISH.
Duels and Battles by Certain Of the
Finny Trite.

The male stickIeback is prodigious
warrior, and when he. meets rival OF
his own kind he engages with him at
once in deadly warfare. Their battles,
says Mr.. Darwin, are at times desperate,
for these puny combatants fasten tight
on each other for several seconds,
tumbling over and over again, until
their strength is utterly exhausted /.
Bold and pugnacious as they are, how
ever, it is only my lords who TINS
fercely contend with one another. Their
demure little mates remain always per
fectly pacific, gentle and even tempered.
With the rough-tailed stickleback, the
males while fighting swim round and
round one another, biting and endeav-
oring to pierce each others mailed SKIN
| with their raised lateral spines or lances.
Small as they are, their bite is very
severe and inflicts deadly wound upon
their antagonist, and Mr.. Noel Humph-
reys remarks that they use their lateral
spines with fierce effect, SO that he has
seen one brave stickleback during a
stout battle rip up his opponent from
end to end, till the vanqulshed hero
sank to the bottom and died inglor-
iously. It is during the moment of bat
tie, and just before and after it, that the
colors of all fighting animals become in
yariably most intense. The reason is
plain; battle is joined during the mating
season, and before the face of maidens
and of dames;" and, as in human tour
naments, the ladies stand by to applaud
the conquerors and to reward their
proves. They are themselves the prize
of the encounter they stimulate. Be-
sides the highest physical vigor and the
highest excitement bring out the great
est beauty of both men and animals.
The angrier you make a mandrill the
more wildly tinted are his cheeks aud
callosities. The frilled lizards and fly
ing dragons glow with all the brightest
colOrs of the rainbow when you tease or
annoy them. The turkey cock swelis
bis crimson wattles and spreads his ruff
fed feathers to the utmost at sight of
rival or mischievous boy. There is a
little hot tempered fish known as BETA
pugnax aud kept as a sort of domestic
pet by the3iamese (much as the Christian
English gentlemen Of forty or fifty years
since kept fighting cocks) to display its
proves for the edifcation of the Mon
golian intelligence. when i'll state OF
quiet, says Cantor, Its dull colors pre-
sent nothing remarkable; but if two be
brought together; or if one sees its own
image in looking glass the little crea-
ture becomes suddenly excited; the raised
fins and the whole body shine with met
allie eolors of dazzling beauty, while the
projecting gill membrane, waving like
black friII round the throat, adds some
thing of grOtesquene;s to the general
appearance. In this sta it makes re
peated darts at its ca or reflected antag-
onist. But Doth, when taken out OF
each others sight, instantly become
quiet" The fighting fishes, as the
Siamese call them, are kept in globes
like gold fish and fed from time to time
with the Larvae of mosquitoes. The
Siamese are as wild after their combat
as the Malays are for cockfghting, and
often stake large sums, or even the free
dom OF themselves and families, on the
proves and skill of a particular BETA.
The license to exhibit fish fights is
framed by government and brings in
considerable revenue to the king of
siam-Cornhill Magazine.